A Thousand and One Nights by Lara Tupper

Author:Lara Tupper [Tupper, Lara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literary Fiction
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Published: 2014-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

EIGHT

Ike and Tina

IN THE MORNING KARLA LEFT Jack at his desk in his boxer shorts and walked back to the Jing’An Temple. She paid her two yuan and passed under the yellow arch. Just inside, a blind man rattled the change in his paper cup. He’d been at 24 Hour the day before. How blind was he?

There were four small buildings inside the temple gates, each painted yellow, each with a large central statue of Buddha. People were waving great handfuls of incense sticks, and chunks of incense burned in large pots. The air was thick and sweet with the smell of ash and cinnamon. Karla liked the Buddhas, their shiny roundness, and she considered kneeling—why not? Jack wasn’t there. But there were monks with shaved heads in black cloaks, singing and striking things with mallets. They might think she was mocking them.

She retraced her steps and turned east on Nanjing Lu. She wasn’t ready to go back to all the beige.

She stopped at Heaven Café because it looked small and cheerful with its bright blue awning. She supposed she could read there for a while. A Chinese man jumped from his seat as she entered and said, “I am Steve. Do you want to eat?”

Karla said no, just a cup of cocoa, please.

“American?”

She said yes, and Steve seemed very pleased and pointed to two men in the cafe who were also American. Karla nodded and sat at a table far away from them, by the window. Karen Carpenter crooned, and the Americans spoke to each other (visas, movies, a new restaurant near the Bund). It was an eavesdropping kind of place. She liked it. She pretended to read and peed twice.

When Karla paid her bill, the cashier asked what had brought her to Shanghai.

“I sing at the Sky Bar,” she said, and the woman squealed and led Karla back to her table. She said she’d very much like to buy Karla a drink.

“Sky Bar! I like your music very much! My name is Tammy.” Karla ordered a lager and lime, because it was listed on the chalkboard in big letters, and Tammy explained that she wanted to “make friends with all the singers in the world.” She used to sing Chinese songs, she said, but singing wasn’t steady enough, and so she and her husband, Steve, had bought the café together. She mentioned the Hard Rock Cafe band, and Sonny the Blues Man, and Charles from Milo’s—and anytime Jack and Karla came in they could have happy hour prices. Karla said thank you, that was very kind, and Tammy said don’t forget, they were open till 5:00 A.M.

“We name the place after the Bryan Adams song ‘Heaven.’ You know this?”

“Yes.”

“But Sky Bar is very beautiful.”

“But not very lively,” said Karla.

Tammy agreed.

Karla finished her pint and Tammy offered another.

“No, I need to practice,” Karla said, although this was a lie. Tammy escorted her to the door and waved, and Karla walked back to the hotel quickly, anxious to tell Jack, anxious to pee again.

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